Jordan Times
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Four receive prison
terms for plotting subversive acts
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) on Wednesday sentenced four men to prison
terms ranging from 10 to 20 years after convicting them of plotting subversive
acts against Americans in Jordan.
They were also charged with possessing illegal weapons with illicit intent.
The tribunal initially sentenced Muath M., 19, Ibrahim F., 28, and Faisal S. 28,
to death, but decided instead to commute the sentence to 20 years of hard labour
“to give the defendants a second chance in life.”
The fourth defendant, Obada A., 24, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for
plotting subversive acts.
The four men decided to attack Americans training Iraqi police officers in
Jordan in late 2004, according to the charge sheet.
They bought a machinegun and trained how to use it, the charge sheet said,
adding that the defendants monitored the road the Americans took on daily basis
to the training centre.
“On one occasion, the defendants followed a car that had Americans in it until
it parked in front of a house near the American embassy and filmed it on
camera,” the charge sheet said.
The defendants repeated their surveillance trips almost four times in August
2005, but were arrested by the authorities on Aug. 31, according to the charge
sheet.
Also Wednesday, the same tribunal sentenced six men to prison terms ranging from
10 to 15 years for plotting subversive acts against US citizens in Jordan.
Defendants Loui H., 25, Hamdi A., 23, Mohammad H., 24, and Mohammad O., 26, were
each handed 10-year prison terms.
Two other defendants, Osama A. and Haitham A., who were tried in absentia on the
same charges, were sentenced each to 15 years in prison.
The six defendants were friends and colleagues and by the beginning of 2005 Loui
became religiously committed after attending preaching classes at a centre in
Hitteen camp, according to the charge sheet.
He decided to attack Americans and proposed the idea to the rest of the
defendants, who agreed, the charge sheet said.
But the defendants first decided to attack liquor stores and bars by placing
cyanide on the doorknobs to kill customers frequenting these premises, the
charge sheet said.
The defendants were unable to accomplish their plans because they could not find
cyanide in the local market and decided instead to attack Americans using
machineguns, the charge sheet added.
The defendants also suggested attacking bars in Amman and one located in a hotel
in Aqaba, “since one of the defendants used to be an employee there and still
owned an access card to that hotel,” according to court documents.
Hamdi suggested killing Americans who frequented a hotel in the capital, “since
he was employed there and it was easy for him to befriend these Americans and
lure them outside the hotel where they would be killed by the rest of the
group.”
The men decided to name their group the “Khatab Brigades” and bought a
machinegun to accomplish their alleged plans, according to the charge sheet.
Some of them travelled to Saudi Arabia and were trained by Osama and Haitham,
the charge sheet added.
The first four defendants were arrested in Jordan in September 2005 before being
able to accomplish any of their alleged plans.
Wednesday’s verdicts will be automatically reviewed by a higher court within the
next 30 days.